Anyone who has $5000 that wouldn't upset their budget if they lose it, the place to be might be day trading, because even if it sounds too risky, there are stocks that go up and down constantly in a given day, and there could be good return, although it's far from conservative investing.

Day traders that are labeled as "pattern traders" need a margin of $25,000. A pattern trader is someone who trades more the 6% of the account balance within five business days. The others who could hold the stocks longer can get away by trading online for $5000 margin.

Even if no one is keen to lose their shirts, a $500 margin could go a long way and starting trading stocks with online companies such as Scottrade is possible.

Almost all day traders are moving stocks so quick it's unbelievable. I recently found out a friend of mine is doign it full time for about a year now and has made a decent income. They use their own formulas and such to predict the market, sounds kina unbeliveable to me!

Day trading is profitable if you spend enough time to study the market movements. Knowing what is happening is the an important factor in order to know when to buy or sell a stock. I just watched my friend open and closed a trade in the span of 2 hours and he has earned about half of my month's salary at that short period of time.

Here's some nice links on day trading:
Finance Markets » What are the futures markets for?
Finance Markets » “Trading Rules That Work” by Jason Jankovsky

These look really good Brian. I bookmarked them and will read them later.

Has anyone heard of the candlestick phiiosophy of trading? Apparently, it works. It was designed by a rice farmer!

Here are some links:

http://candlestickgenius.com

http://www.fxhometrader.co.za/Japane...ck_Charts.html

Many people confuse day trading with swing trading. Swing trading is holding stocks for a few days, while daytrading is holding stocks for a few minutes or hours. To daytrade, one needs about 50K, level 2 quotation system, and a brokerage designed for active traders.

I think about 25-50K is necessary for effective daytrading. You won't get anywhere trying to daytrade with less than 10 thousand bucks.